Property FW and 1-dimensional piecewise groups (Q2656162)

The author considers groups acting on the real projective line (in other words, the circle), by piecewise continuous self-transformations. In other terms, he considers groups of generalized interval exchange transformations, which are locally given by projective maps (with respect to the appropriate projective structure). We denote by \(\mathrm{PC}_{\mathbf{Proj}}(\mathbb{P}^1)\) the group of all such transformations. One of the results in this note is that every countable subgroup of \(\mathrm{PC}_{\mathbf{Proj}}(\mathbb{P}^1)\) with Kazhdan's property T is finite. This can be compared with a celebrated result of \textit{A. Navas} for actions on the circle by diffeomorphisms of class \(C^{3/2}\) [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 35, No. 5, 749--758 (2002; Zbl 1028.58010)]. In fact, this follows from a classification of subgroups of \(\mathrm{PC}_{\mathbf{Proj}}(\mathbb{P}^1)\) with property FW, which is a fixed point property for countable groups which generalizes property T. More precisely, one can say that a countable group has property FW if every action on a CAT(0) cube complex has a fixed point. Then, the main result states that, up to bounded error (passing to a finite index subgroup and taking the quotient by a finite normal subgroup), every subgroup of \(\mathrm{PC}_{\mathbf{Proj}}(\mathbb{P}^1)\) with property FW embeds into \(\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb R)^n\), for some \(n\ge 1\) (with the additional property that every projection to a \(\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb R)\)-factor has Zariski-dense image). This work can be compared with [\textit{Y. Lodha}, \textit{N. Matte Bon} and \textit{M. Triestino}, J. Topol. 13, No. 3, 1119--1138 (2020; Zbl 1478.22004)], where similar results for actions by homeomorphisms on the circle were obtained independently, with a similar approach.